Turf over Land - Track vs. Cross Country

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Turf Over Land In the world of high school running, there are two types of runners: cross country runners and track runners. I am both, as I have been in cross country since seventh grade and track since first grade. I know how it feels to train and compete in both, and I have come to a conclusion that track & field is way better than cross country. In cross country, the season is much longer than track. To non-runners, the season is about 3 months long. However, in the eye of a runner, summer training makes it even longer by at least 2 months! Summer practices are usually Monday through Saturday for about 5 hours. I don’t think people want to wake up at 7:30 in the morning to go on a long run and do weight training after. The track season is much shorter with shorter practices. For distance runners, the pace is much faster than in cross country, but the distance is shorter. For Sprinters and Hurdlers, like me, workouts are much shorter and only Monday through Friday. As far as the length of meets, track meets are longer than cross country meets, track meets have many more events than cross country meets. In my opinion, placing in track is easier than placing in cross country, because in track meets there are only 9 runners per heat, and usually there are 2 to 4 heats. On the other hand, cross country has from 200 to as much as 700 people racing at the same time! Imagine that, running with 700 people, cluttered and being shoved and pushed while running. Not the best feeling in the world. Sometimes you get “spiked”, other runners tend to kick you or step on you with their spikes. Usually runners use plastic spikes, but there are some runners that use metal spikes, and at times they use it in a way to help them cheat, by “spiking” ... ... middle of paper ... ...t used to running long distances. It’ll take even longer for a person to get used to racing long distances. Running/jogging long distances and actually racing long distances are two totally different things. Cross country also requires more energy than track. In track you get recovery time in between your races, but in cross country you run the 3.1 miles altogether with no breaks. In conclusion, cross country is way more inferior to track & field. There are many reasons why, that is if you have the same opinion as mine. Truly if I wouldn’t think that cross country is pre-season training for track, I would probably care less about it or be less committed to it. Works Cited Lovetorun17. “Track vs. Cross Country (yes, there is a BIG difference!).” October 24, 2012. http://runfreeforever.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/track-vs-cross-country-yes-there-is-a-big-difference/

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